Arcological Society
The Interstellar Society for the Promotion and Seeding of Sustainable Ecologies, widely referred to as the Arcological Society, is a Deplanitarized/Apolitical/Secular/Acculturating organization with the stated agenda of "promoting sustainable living through community planning, social responsibility and aggressive advocacy." History The Arcological Society was founded in 525 S.E. by Hermann Tulles , an interstellar explorer famous for his use of antiquated conventional FTL drives to achieve what he referred to as "Celeritous Immortality". A native of Miranda's sprawling capital, Corporosis, Tulles had become a well-known public figure for his dashing personality and for the spectacular public displays he made upon returning from his various exploratory expeditions. In his memoir, As I Live and Die, High Foreman Elric Lyons remarked of Tulles: It was hard not to think of Tulles as some sort of demigod. I saw him only twice. Once, as a small boy, he flew his flagship over my neighborhood, towing the carapace of a giant space cicaida . Big as a city block it was, and taller than the tallest building I'd ever seen. He was riding on one of it's legs, not ten feet above the rooftops, balancing effortlessly on a spur like a scythe blade and all the time grinning like a maniac and waving his hat at the people on the street. It was a thrill, I can tell you. When I saw him again, I was seventy three years old, and the ruler of an entire planet. He swaggered into my office, plunked himself down in my chair and asked me if I wouldn't mind letting him park this city of his for a while. I'd swear he hadn't aged a day. Truth be told, I couldn't think of anything to say but "yes". Tulles returned from one such expedition in 413 S.E. with the first recorded Arcology, which he named "Fortuna". Fortuna was an octohedral, fully integrated living space, twenty kilometers to a side, and designed to house roughly three million inhabitants. Tulles embedded Fortuna in the crust of Miranda a short distance from Corporosis and opened its doors to the public. By 413 S.E., Miranda had already enjoyed enormous prosperity for its cultivation of Whispergrass , leaving much of the planet's temperate zone covered in agricultural fields, and the horizontalist style of local architecture, combined with poorly regulated zoning had led to serious overcrowding and food shortages in Miranda's major cities. Though Tulles never officially partnered with, or even requested permission for his project from the sitting administration, the arcology was taken as an economic and political godsend. Over the next 100 years, Tulles completed four more exploratory journeys, returning with a total of seventeen new arcologies that rapidly absorbed an estimated 80% of Miranda's urban population. Large sections of the old cities were completely abandoned, and swiftly fell into disrepair. By 520 S.E., the arcologies represented virtually all civic infrastructure, which presented a serious problem for the government of Miranda. Tulles, though a remarkable representative and public figure for the arcologies, was a poor administrator, and ownership and stewardship of the enormous structures was unclear. Most arcologies had developed ad hoc administrative structures to organize and care for the enormous cities during Tulles' long absences, and in 525, Tulles officialized the relationship, calling what he called a "meeting of muckity-mucks" to discuss the future of the Arcologies. Two days later, the Arcological Society was publicly announced as a separate, privately operated governing body for the arcologies. Tulles, in an uncharacteristic move, quietly disappeared from the planet, never to return. In Tulles' absence, the Arcological movement receded from the public eye. The Arcological society is well-known for its secrecy and resistance to governmental involvement, and little is recorded concerning the three hundred years during which, presumably, the Arcological society was solidifying its support on Miranda and preparing to continue its expansion. The only identifiable records referring to the Society during this period are a series of official complaints filed by the office of the Mirandan High Foreman to the Ghadi Empire, of which the planet was a protectorate. Beginning in 590 S.E., documentation of unexplained "citydrops" began to appear on unaffiliated and outlying Ghadi worlds. Because these drops were infrequent, and often focused on worlds outside of Ghadi influence or interest, little was done in the early stages to curtail the spread of the Arcological Society's influence. Arcologies recieved mixed receptions by native governments, for the most part operating independently and avoiding contact as much as possible. Some planets, mostly those with hostile environments or serious economic problems, welcomed the arrival of the arcologies, while others viewed them as ugly, unnecessary, or politically dangerous. In 633 S.E., an arcology was dropped, unannounced, on Ghad. The Ghadi response was quick and decisive. Native Ghadi military swiftly seized and razed the structure, and the Arcological Society was labeled a Threat to the People. In an official announcement by the famous Ghadi Minister of Culture and Propaganda Claudine Mellette, the Society was called: ...a pox upon the fair face of the Empire. The so-called Arcological Society spreads monoculture, blighting our free planets with the conformity of its design. Its arcologies suffocate local governments, stifle regional cultures and threaten the very diversity which makes our Empire so strong. They are ticks on the back of great planets, and like all ticks, they will be burned out of their holes and crushed against the ground. By this time, the Arcological Society had gathered considerable population, support, and resources, and their military division rivaled those of many independent planets of the time. While the Ghadi Empire greatly outmatched them at the time, Ghadi forces were largely committed to existing engagements with the Zarakkanian Empire, and as a result, Arcological forces were able to secure and retain footholds on nearly all of their colony worlds, from which they not only defended their influence, but actually continued to drop arcologies on key Ghadi production planets. Indeed, many historians have argued that the spreading influence of the Arcological Society, and the resulting drain on Ghadi military resources, was largely responsible for the series of major defeats that eventually led to the Ghadi Empire's dissolution. Since the beginning of the Third Age, there has been no organized military resistance to the Society's activities. City Drops have decreased dramatically in frequency since the fall of the Ghadi Empire, but have continued to consistently seed Arcologies across a larger and larger area. There are recorded sightings of uninhabited and off-network planets, already seeded with anywhere from one to twenty wholly unmanned and uninhabited arcologies. How, where, and most importantly why the enormous, prefabricated facilities are constructed remains unknown.